Short Summary

The last known American prisoner of war in Indochina, Mr. Emmet James Kay, was released?

Description

The last known American prisoner of war in Indochina, Mr. Emmet James Kay, was released on Wednesday (18 September) after 16 months imprisonment in the pro-Communist Fathet Lao zone.

The 48-year-old Kay, a pilot from Hawaii, arrived at Vientiane airport shortly after midday from the Pathet Lao stronghold of Samneua, near the North Vietnamese border, aboard a special aircraft.

In an emotional welcoming ceremony, May embraced his wife and then shook hand with a party of United States government officials, headed by the Ambassador to Laos, Charles whitehouse.

In a brief statement to waiting newsmen, Kay had little to say on how he was shot down. He refused all comment on whether there were still other American ??? in Fathet Lao hands.

Kay was shot down on May 7th last year while on a supply mission in northeastern Laos. He was flying a light aircraft for Continental Air Services, an American airline under contract with the U.S. government for air support inside Laos.

The Fathet Lao, who agreed to his release a day earlier than the other POWs under the ox??? agreement, claimed that Kay was captured as a "violator of the ceasefire."
Both the Pat et Lao and the Vientiane faction signed a ceasefire agreement on February 22nd, 1973, ending more than a decade of civil war in Laos. A coalition government on April 4th of this year.

Shortly after his release on Wednesday, kay and his wife boarded another aircraft for Clark Airbas in the Philippines. After a medical checkup, he will return to his home in Mawaii.

SYNOPSIS: The plane carrying Emmot Kay from a Pathet Lao stronghold near the North Vietnamese border touched down at Vientiane airport shortly after midday on Wednesday.

His wife and the American Ambassador to Laos were waiting as the last known American ??? in Indochina stepped off. May was shot down on May 7th of last year while on a supply mission for a U.S. government sponsored airline in north-eastern Laos.

In a brief statement to waiting newsmen, Kay had little to say on how he was shot down and why he was held a prisoner for more than 16 months. But the Pathet Lao claimed that Kay was captured as a violator of the ceasefire agreement, signed three months earlier. That agreement ended more than a decade of VC civil war in Laos.

His release on Wednesday again raises that one question that still remains unanswered..... the fate of the other 1,000 Americans listed as missing in action in Indochina.

But for ???ret Kay, the ordeal was over. He and his wife boarded a military plane for Clark Airbase in the Philippines, form where hie will return home to Mawaii.